Editor's Note A new Deloitte report shows healthcare finance leaders are increasingly focused on external business pressures, especially federal policy changes, tariffs, and economic volatility, Chief Healthcare Executive reported June 24. In contrast to prior surveys, where workforce and internal operations were top concerns, 84% of leaders now cite external…

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Editor's Note Johnson & Johnson MedTech has launched the Polyphonic AI Fund for Surgery to accelerate the development of artificial intelligence solutions aimed at improving surgical care before, during, and after procedures. According to the company’s June 25 announcement, the initiative brings together key partners, including NVIDIA and Amazon Web…

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Editor's Note Nearly 50 major US health insurers—including UnitedHealthcare, Aetna, Cigna, Elevance, and Humana—have pledged to reform prior authorization practices, with the goal of easing administrative burdens and improving access to care, according to a June 23 article in Healthcare Dive. As detailed in the article, the announcement came from…

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Nursing teams can find strength in diversity, but educating a team with a range of backgrounds and experience levels can be challenging. Some respond well to traditional lectures and presentations, while others may gravitate toward more collaborative or hands-on approaches. Making education a game has emerged as one of the…

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Editor's Note Hospitals spent nearly $900 million in labor last year managing drug shortages, dedicating over 20 million hours to activities such as sourcing alternatives, updating systems, and communicating with care teams, according to a new Vizient survey published June 17. Conducted in late 2023 and detailed in Vizient’s June…

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Editor's Note Reducing the number of OR personnel during preparation of sterile surgical goods significantly lowers airborne bacterial contamination, according to a randomized controlled trial published June 15 in Antimicrobial Resistance & Infection Control. The study measured contamination levels during sterile setup for 69 open-heart surgeries, comparing rooms with two…

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Editor's Note Bad debt—payments hospitals expected to collect but ultimately had to write off—is increasing across hospitals as patients struggle to pay their share of healthcare costs and insurers raise the rate of claim denials, Modern Healthcare reported June 19. Citing a Kaufman Hall analysis of data from about 700…

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Editor's Note Recent reporting from Axios reveals hospitals and health insurers are reporting new concerns about rising tariffs and trade policy uncertainty, with the former delaying purchasing decisions and the latter planning premium increases as a result. In the first article, published June 18, the outlet reports that health system…

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Editor's Note Do you know a perioperative leader who deserves to be honored before their peers at a gathering of virtually the entire industry? This is just one way we honor the recipients of our annual OR Manager Awards—OR Manager of the Year, PACU Leader of the Year, and Ambulatory…

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Editor's Note New research shows surgical patients in the US face a significantly greater risk of food insecurity than nonsurgical patients, even after adjusting for demographic and socioeconomic differences. Findings also point to potential underutilization of the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits among surgical patients, study authors write.  …

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